High School Graduation Budget-Bust
A child’s graduation from high school is a momentous time- to both children and parents. It’s the culmination of 12 years of schooling, ups and downs, passed and failed tests, new teachers and classmates; new relationships, experiences, pressures, and growing up. It really is a special time, a time of celebration.
In recognition of graduation, we can expect the following expenses: class ring; yearbook; class trip, graduation pictures; graduation dress, shoes, and hairdo; and prom ticket, dress, shoes, hairdo, make-up, professional photos, transportation, and spending money. Then, there’s the celebration after the celebration- the graduation after-party hosted by proud parents.
High School graduations can easily cost $1,000- $1,500 and can bust a budget. The good news is, we know it’s coming. It’s extremely easy to track. Our child is in the 10th or 11th grade and so graduation is a year or two away. We can plan. Based on which high school activities we determine our children will participate in and what expenses we will cover; we can come up with a rough estimate of what we will need for their graduation year.
Once we know how much we plan to spend, we divide that by the number of months leading up to that time. Let’s not forget that some expenses will start at the beginning of their
12th grade year and others will pop-up as the year goes on. Big expenses like prom and graduation will come towards the end of the year, but still require some investments months before the big day(s).
So, if we anticipate spending $1200 for graduation expense and it’s one year (12-months) away, let’s set aside $100 a month into an account dedicated for graduation. Many banks allow us to open up sub-accounts of an existing account- at no additional fee. We can title the account, “Graduation” or whatever we want, but the money that goes into that account is committed to that purpose. If graduation is 2 years away (24-months), we may only need to put away $50 a month. The sooner we start, the easier it will be on our wallet.
Something else we can do is, start teaching our children how to be financially responsible. Part of that could be teaching them to also set money aside to fund at least part of their graduation expenses. They can do this through setting aside a portion of their allowance or a portion of the money from part time jobs during the school year and/or summer. There is no reason we have to fund the entire expense.
Bottom line is, we don’t have to bust our budget because of graduation. Graduation becomes a line item in our budget. Then we don’t have to stress every time we have to kick out $100-$200 for one of those expenses. With this strategy, instead of worrying about how bills will get paid, setting up payment arrangements with our creditors, or robbing Peter to pay Paul; we can truly be in the moment. We don’t have to share our headspace with both happiness and worry- because we’ve been wise in planning. That’s something we and hopefully our graduate, can be proud of.
